Clovis Oncology's second largest shareholder, Armistice Capital, has been in contact with management and encouraged the company to pursue a sale, Gillian Tan and Cynthia Koons of Bloomberg report, citing a person familiar with the matter. The activist is pushing for a sale after Clovis competitor Tesaro (TSRO) reached an agreement to be acquired by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Shares of Clovis are down 6%, or $1.16, to $19.60 in afternoon trading. Reference Link

Tesaro proxy documents point to interest in PARP economics, says Leerink. Leerink analyst Andrew Berens noted that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Tesaro (TSRO) disclosed background details for their deal agreement in a filing this morning. The documents show several parties were interested in a strategic transaction with Tesaro at various points over the last year, though the strategic interest appears to have been driven by Glaxo and one additional company, identified as "Party A", Berens said. It is not clear why the six other contacted parties were not interested in pursuing a strategic transaction, but he thinks Party A's co-promote proposal and the initial interest of other potential acquirers indicates strategic interest in the economics surrounding a PARP. Berens, who continues to see Clovis (CLVS) being well-positioned as the remaining stand-alone PARP-focused company, keeps an Outperform rating on Clovis and Market Perform rating on Tesaro.

Clovis Oncology announced that the European Union's European Medicines Agency Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has adopted a positive opinion recommending an additional indication to include rucaparib as monotherapy for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed high-grade epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in response to platinum-based chemotherapy. EC approval is anticipated in the first quarter of 2019. Once approved, Rubraca's indication will expand beyond its initial Marketing Authorization in Europe granted in May 2018 for adult patients with platinum-sensitive, relapsed or progressive, BRCA mutated, high-grade epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer, who have been treated with two or more prior lines of platinum-based chemotherapy, and who are unable to tolerate further platinum-based chemotherapy. The CHMP's positive opinion for this additional indication was based on data from the phase 3 ARIEL3 clinical trial, which found that rucaparib significantly improved progression-free survival in all ovarian cancer patient populations studied.

Gabelli sees Clovis as likely takeout target, top biotech pick in 2019. Gabelli analyst Jing He highlights Clovis (CLVS) as his top biotech pick in 2019. With the Tesaro (TSRO) acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Clovis will become the only standalone PARP, which the analyst believes makes it the most likely takeout target in 2019. He continues to believe Bristol-Myers (BMY), Sanofi (SNY) and Roche (RHHBY) to be the most interested buyers. The analyst reiterates a Buy rating on Clovis' shares.